INEQUALITY: DORMANT THREAT TO STABILITY IN THE BRICS

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INEQUALITY: DORMANT THREAT TO STABILITY IN THE BRICS

Journal Title: Athenaeum. Polskie Studia Politologiczne - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 56

Abstract

Being perceived by the West as a powerful yet heterogeneous “deconstructing power” and an external threat to western supremacy in global governance, the BRICS members are facing a serious “dormant threat” coming from within – economic inequalities. By asking whether inequality, like “bad cholesterol”, may silently kill the sustainability of growth by restraining access to education, health or knowledge, this article provides an assessment of the relation between the increasing inequality and rising political instability in BRICS countries. The first section of this article investigates various approaches to income and wealth inequalities, and provides a literature overview. The second section accentuates the deconstructing features of inequality in BRICS countries, which are encapsulated as the “3Ws”: weak markets, weak governments, and weak institutions. The third section looks into the inequality dynamics in BRICS members showcasing that the huge income disparities in BRICS (GINI > 0.40), combined with high food and house prices, not only fuel opportunity inequalities and growing social anger, but also lead to political instability and setbacks on the path to balanced growth. The final part presents the main conclusions.

Authors and Affiliations

Marek Rewizorski

Keywords

EP ID EP667540
DOI 10.15804/athena.2017.56.08
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